The present invention relates to data storage systems, and more particularly, this invention relates to the detection of high resistance conditions in tape drives.
In magnetic storage systems, magnetic transducers read data from and write data onto magnetic recording media. Data is written on the magnetic recording media by moving a magnetic recording transducer to a position over the media where the data is to be stored. The magnetic recording transducer then generates a magnetic field, which encodes the data into the magnetic media. Data is read from the media by similarly positioning the magnetic read transducer and then sensing the magnetic field of the magnetic media. Read and write operations may be independently synchronized with the movement of the media to ensure that the data can be read from and written to the desired location on the media.
An important and continuing goal in the data storage industry is that of increasing the density of data stored on a medium. For tape storage systems, that goal has led to increasing the track and linear bit density on recording tape, and decreasing the thickness of the magnetic tape medium. Similarly, improved data rates have been achieved by increasing the number of transducers positioned on a given head. However, developing smaller footprints, while also increasing the achievable data rate for higher performance tape drive systems, has created various problems in the design of a tape head assembly for use in such systems.